Catch-latch for farm-gates



J. SUMMERS, OF RALEIGH, VIRGINIA.

CATCH-LATCH FOR FARM-GATES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 20,008, dated April 20, 1858.

To all whom 'it mayoncem:

Be it' known that I, JOSEPH SUMMERS, of Raleigh, in the county of Raleigh and State of Virginia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Farm-Gates; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specication, in which- Figure l, is an elevation of a farm gate viewed from the inside of the yard. Fig. 2, is a transverse section of the same in the line m, m, of Fig. 3 looking toward the rear end of the gate. Fig. 3, is a horizontal section of the same in the line w, a2, of Fig. 3, looking toward the rear end of the gate.

Similar letters of reference in each of the several figures indicate corresponding parts.

The nature of my invention consists in a peculiar spring stop plate, in combination with a spring bolt, whereby, when the bolt is drawn back and the gate opened, said spring stop plate will come in front of the end of the bolt and hold it back uneXposed, and when the gate is closed, said spring plate will be automatically removed from in front of the bolt and the bolt allowed to shoot into a socket and bolt the gate securely. VWith this arrangement, the end of the bolt will not be allowed to project out from the closing base of the batten of the gate when the gate is open, and therefore all chance for the reins, gearing or garments to catch upon the same is completely avoided,

while passing through the gate.

To enable others, skilled in the art, to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A, A', represent the two posts between which the gate is arranged. The post Al, has a pin B, projecting horizontally from its front face, as shown. The office of this pin will be presently described.

C, is the gate, hinged as usual to the post A.

D, is a spring bolt, it is arranged to slide in guide a, and through the hatten C, of the' gate, being rendered self bolting by a spiral spring F, and provided with a hand lever G, in order to be withdrawn from the socket c, of the post A when it is desired to unbolt the gate.

H,l is a metal casing placed over a recess I, cut in the batten C, of the gate. This casing has an opening d, for the front end of the bolt to shoot through; in its face and in its outer side, at right angles to said opening, another oblong opening e, is provided as shown in Figs. l, 2, and 3 of the drawing. Opposite the opening e, on the inside of the casing H, a spring plate K, is arranged, being suspended byits upper end on pins f, f, its lower end being left free. This plate has a lip or stop projection g, formed on it, said lip being at right angles to the face of the plate and parallel with the bolt hole (Z, of the casing H, and being of sufficient width to partially cover bolt hole el, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

From the foregoing description, it may be evident, if the bolt is in its socket c, and it is desired to pass through the gate, that by moving forward the lever G, the bolt D, will be thrown back out of the socket c, and its end caused to enter the casing H, and that as soon as this occurs, the stop lip g, of the spring plate will spring before the end of the bolt as shown in Fig. 2, and prevent the bolt shooting through the hole CZ. Thus having the spring lip come in front of the bolt avoids having the end of the bolt exposed for the reins, harness, or garments to catch upon in passing through the gate. Again it may be evident, afterhaving passed through the gate, that by simply closing it with a slight force, the outer face of the spring plate K, will come in contact with the pin B, of the post A, and be forced inward, suliiciently far to throw the lip g, from a position in front of the bolt and thus allow the bolt to shoot through the hole d, into the socket c, as illustrated in Figs. l and 3.

The same result as the foregoing'can be accomplished nearly as well by having the spring plate arranged on the post so that thepart designated as t-he spring plate K, shall cover the bolt hole, and the part designated as the lip serves as a projection for the gate to close against, the gate in closing forcing the lip back against t-he post A', and

purpose of accomplishing the result herein 10 speced.

AThe above .specification of my improvement in farm gates signed by me this 10th day of March 1858.

JOS. SUMMERS.

Witnesses:

G. YoRKE AT LEE, CALVIN Cox. 

